Fostering an Outward Gaze: An Argument for Attending to Existential Questions and Needs Within the Kohutian Conceptualization of Narcissism

Abstract

The study of narcissism has become increasingly popular in many areas of study. Research has documented the effects narcissism has on several areas of a narcissistic individual’s life, including how it can impact an individual’s interpersonal, emotional, and occupational functioning. However, there has been a lack in understanding how the existential domain of the person is impacted by narcissism, as well as a lack in understanding how attending to the existential domain of the person could assist in reducing narcissistic tendencies. This is a theoretical dissertation that argues for the importance of expanding the psychoanalytic study of narcissism to include ways to understand and attend to the narcissistic individual’s existential questions and needs. First, this dissertation reviews the psychoanalytic study of narcissism. It then narrows its focus to Heinz Kohut’s conceptualization of narcissism and argues for how his theory has a gap in understanding the existential domain of the person. Next, it describes Luigi Giussani’s understanding and way of attending to the existential questions and needs of the person. I argue that Giussani’s theory provides an answer to the gap in the Kohutian approach to narcissism. Specifically, I argue that his theory provides a framework for understanding the existential domain of the narcissistic individual and method for attending to this domain.